Tax Law Commons^™

Rethinking Treaty Shopping: Lessons For The European Union, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, C. H. Panayi

Book Chapters

Whilst treaty shopping is not a new phenomenon, it remains as controversial as ever. It would seem that the more countries try to deal with it, the wider the disagreements as to what is improper treaty shopping and what is legitimate tax planning. In this paper, we reassess the traditional quasi-definitions of treaty shopping in an attempt to delineate the contours of such practices. We examine the various theoretical arguments advanced to justify the campaign against treaty shopping. We also consider the current trends in treaty shopping and the anti-treaty shopping policies under the OECD Model and the US Model. …

Reducing Information Gaps To Reduce The Tax Gap: When Is Information Reporting Warranted?, Leandra Lederman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

A core problem for enforcement of tax laws is asymmetric information. The taxpayer knows the facts regarding the relevant transactions it engages in during the year-or at least has ready access to that information. The government is forced to play catch-up, obtaining that information either from the taxpayer or from third parties. Information reporting is routinely used to address this information gap. The government obtains information about the taxpayer's tax situation from a third party and-equally important-the taxpayer knows that the government has received that information. This fosters taxpayer honesty. Information reporting is not a panacea, however. It imposes costs …

Using Salience And Influence To Narrow The Tax Gap, Susan Morse

Faculty Publications

This Article contains five parts. Part I describes the details and limitations of several existing tax-gap-closing approaches relevant to self-employed and small business taxpayers: third-party reporting, audit, whistleblower rewards, and gatekeeper strategies. Part II outlines the concepts of salience and influence and places them in the context of proposals to address or close the tax gap. Part III considers how salience and the influence principle of social proof could improve government messages to taxpayers about taxpaying obligations and audit risks, and to tax preparers about diligence requirements. Part IV outlines strategies based on the influence principles of reciprocity and commitment …

Opinions On The Ethics Of Tax Evasion: A Comparative Study Of The Usa And Six Latin American Countries, Robert W. Mcgee, Wendy Gelman

Akron Tax Journal

This study does not take either of these approaches. It does not analyze tax evasion from the perspective of economics or public finance, and it does not apply ethical theory to determine under what circumstances tax evasion might be considered ethical, although ethics is discussed. It focuses on the attitude toward tax evasion of a wide range of individuals in six Latin American countries as well as the United States. The main goals of this study are to determine general attitudes on the ethics of tax evasion and to determine whether certain demographic variables, including gender, age, level of education, …

Cash Businesses And Tax Evasion, Susan Morse, Stewart Karlinsky, Joseph Bankman

Faculty Publications

This Article attempts to provide a qualitative picture of tax evasion in the small business sector. It provides details from almost 275 field study interviews with cash business owners and with tax preparers and bankers who serve cash business clients. Our research suggests answers to the questions of who evades taxes, what taxes they evade, and why and how they evade taxes. This Article proceeds in three additional parts. Part II summarizes the main threads of relevant social science research on small business tax compliance. Part III describes the methodology and results of this interview study. Part IV concludes.

Relational Tax Planning Under Risk-Based Rules, Alex Raskolnikov

Faculty Scholarship

Risk-based rules are the tax system's primary response to aggressive tax planning. They usually grant benefits only to those taxpayers who accept risk of changes in market prices (market risk) or business opportunities (business risk). Attempts to circumvent these rules by hedging, contractual safeguards, and diversification are well-understood. The same cannot be said about a very different type of tax planning. Instead of reducing risk directly, some taxpayers change the nature of risk. They enter into informal, legally unenforceable agreements with contractual counterparties that are designed to eliminate market or business risk entirely. The new uncertainty these tax planners inevitably …

Philosopher Kings And International Tax: A New Approach To Tax Havens, Tax Flight, And International Tax Cooperation, Steven A. Dean

Faculty Scholarship

Tax flight treaties could help to solve the $50 billion-a-year problem that tax flight (the evasion of income taxes through the use of offshore tax havens) poses for the United States. Tax flight treaties would offer tax havens a substantial portion of the increased tax revenues that they could generate by providing the United States with the enforcement assistance it needs. Those payments, potentially representing as much as half of the added tax revenue produced by tax flight treaties (and in all probability an amount that is greater than any GDP gains attributable to eliminating waste and other economic distortions …

Statutory Speed Bumps: The Roles Third Parties Play In Tax Compliance, Leandra Lederman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

Recent legal and economic scholarship has recognized that the government can use structural systems as an efficient way to reduce prohibited behavior. The federal tax system employs structural mechanisms, such as withholding taxes, to foster compliance. The use of structural systems to reduce tax evasion need not be limited to tax administration, however. The Article argues that substantive federal income tax law can - and in many contexts does - foster compliance by harnessing the structural incentives of third parties. Although this phenomenon has gone largely unnoticed, third parties are routinely used by the tax system to verify the bona …

"Failure To Pay Any Poll Tax Or Other Tax": The Constitutionality Of Tax Felon Disenfranchisement, Sloan G. Speck

Publications

If the government convicts a citizen under the tax evasion provisions of the Internal Revenue Code, some state disenfranchisement laws preclude that citizen — now a felon — from voting. In this sense, the right to vote depends on the payment of federal income taxes. The Constitution's Twenty-Fourth Amendment, however, guarantees that the federal franchise “shall not be denied or abridged... by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.” If “other tax” includes income taxes, the text of the Twenty-fourth Amendment appears to prohibit the disenfranchisement of citizens convicted of tax felonies. This Comment argues that …

Holding Intellectual Property, Xuan-Thao Nguyen

Articles

The collapse of WorldCom, Inc., exposed a complex web of accounting irregularities. Within that web, recent filings by Dick Thornburgh, WorldCom's Bankruptcy Court Examiner, reveal a different type of scheme that involves the holding of intellectual property. Further scrutinizing the scheme reveals that WorldCom and its tax advisors, KPMG Peat Marwick LLP (KPMG), devised a tax avoidance scheme through the creation of an intellectual property holding company (IP holding company). This type of scheme has been widely and quietly utilized in the last twenty years by many corporations with substantial intellectual property.

Indeed, as state taxing authorities have become more …

Tax Law Uncertainty And The Role Of Tax Insurance, Kyle D. Logue

Articles

In the broadest sense, this is an article about legal or regulatory uncertainty and the role that private and public insurance can play in managing it. More narrowly, the article is about tax law enforcement and the familiar if ill-defined distinctions between tax evasion, tax avoidance, and abusive tax avoidance. Most specifically, the article is about a new type of tax risk insurance policy, sometimes called tax indemnity insurance or transactional tax risk insurance that provides coverage against the risk that the Internal Revenue Service (Service) will disallow a taxpayer-insured's tax treatment of a particular transaction. The question is whether …

Closing The International Tax Gap, Joseph Guttentag, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah

Book Chapters

In July of 1999, the Justice Department entered into a plea bargain with one John M. Mathewson of San Antonio, Texas. Mr. Mathewson was accused of money laundering through the Guardian Bank and Trust Co. Ltd., a Cayman Islands bank. Mr. Mathewson was chairman and controlling shareholder of Guardian, and in that capacity had access to information on its depositors. In return for a reduced sentence, Mr. Mathewson turned over the names of the persons who had accounts at Guardian. The result was an eye-opener: The majority of the accounts were beneficially owned by U.S. citizens, and the reason they …

Taxing International Portfolio Income, Michael J. Graetz, Itai Grinberg

Faculty Scholarship

Most analyses of the taxation of international income earned by U.S. corporations or individuals have addressed income from direct investments abroad. With the exception of routine bows to the "international tax compromise" and sporadic discussions of the practical difficulties residence countries face in collecting taxes on international portfolio income, the taxation of international portfolio income generally has been ignored in the tax literature.

Analysis and reassessment of U.S. tax policy regarding international portfolio income is long overdue. The amount of international portfolio investment and its role in the world economy has grown exponentially in recent years. In most years since …

The Interplay Between Norms And Enforcement In Tax Compliance, Leandra Lederman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

What will increase individuals' compliance with the federal income tax? There are rich legal, economic, and sociological literatures examining this question. The traditional answer that increased enforcement will increase compliance is supported by both economic modeling and a number of experiments. However, studies show that appeals to normative beliefs about honesty in taxpaying play an important role as well.

A number of scholars have suggested that vigorous enforcement of the tax laws may be counterproductive because it may suggest that noncompliance is the norm. This article argues, in part, that enforcement and a compliance norm are not inconsistent but rather …

Tax Compliance And The Reformed Irs, Leandra Lederman

Articles by Maurer Faculty

The Internal Revenue Service Restructuring and Reform Act of 1998 directed the IRS to transform itself into an agency focused on "customers." What affect will such a focus on service have on compliance? This article analyzes not only the post-IRS reform statistics on enforced compliance but also considers the more important question of the likely impact of IRS friendliness on so-called "voluntary compliance."

Although some have suggested that a kinder IRS might prompt increased voluntary compliance, this article argues that it likely will not, based on the literature examining the impact on voluntary compliance of tax collector service to taxpayers …

Implications Of The Tax Reform Proposals For Fraud – Or – How To Shift To A Consumption Tax Without Helping The Cheaters, Kalyani Robbins

Faculty Publications

The vast majority of the proposals on the table today are simply different implementation mechanisms of the same basic idea: a change in the tax base from income to consumption. The purpose of this article is to consider the implications some of these proposals have for the enforcement of tax compliance (prevention of cheating). For this reason, it will only briefly address the impetus for a consumption tax and the policy considerations behind it. The first part will also give short descriptions of the proposals that will be considered in this article: the National Retail Sales Tax, the Savings-Exempt Income …

Practitioners - Beware The Trojan Horse: The Government Unsheathes An Old Weapon To Target Practitioners For Criminal Tax Offenses, Dante Marrazzo

Akron Tax Journal

Nestled within the many criminal sanctions of the Internal Revenue Code is a little known, less understood, and, until recently, seldom used statute proscribing attempts to interfere with administration of the Internal Revenue laws. This article will discuss the exponential increase in use of that provision, section 7212(a) of the Internal Revenue Code, in the last decade to seek prosecution of tax scofflaws, particularly practitioners, who might have otherwise escaped criminal sanctions. This article will call attention to some perils for the practitioner relating to representing a client on tax matters. Those perils include possible criminal prosecution of an attorney …

The Return To Corporate Tax Evasion In The Presence Of An Income Tax On Shareholders, Graeme S. Cooper

Akron Tax Journal

The paper will proceed in the following stages: Section II will describe a theoretical model of the incentive structure surrounding corporate tax evasion and the implications that the model suggests for the behavior of corporate managers. Section III will analyze how the personal income tax might change the returns to evasion and how this effect could be expected to influence the behaviour of the corporation's managers. Section IV will describe the principal interaction mechanisms between the corporate tax and personal income tax employed in practice. Section V will analyze the effects of each of the interaction mechanisms described. Section VI …

International Tax Evasion: Spawned In The United States And Nurtured By Secrecy Havens, Allaire U. Karzon

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

The United States system of income taxation is predicated upon the voluntary self-assessment and payment of tax. Voluntary compliance, in turn, depends upon the confidence of United States citizens that the taxation system is basically fair, that the tax burden essential to maintain the government is shared by all in proportion to their net income, and that those who cheat are discovered and prosecuted. Circumstances that allow certain taxpayers to escape their proper tax liability successfully tempt others to seek tax evasion devices for themselves, and, more importantly, demoralize the conscientious majority who pay their just share of taxes but …

International Tax Evasion And Tax Fraud: Typical Schemes And The Legal Issues Raised By Their Detection And Prosecution, Hugh Spall

University of Miami Inter-American Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tax Havens, Charles R. Irish

Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law

Opinions about tax havens cover a wide spectrum. Some suggest tax havens present an unacceptable face of capitalism and inflict considerable damage on the economies of nonhaven countries. Others argue that havens offer relief from oppressive taxes and other regulations which inhibit the free and efficient flow of capital; and still others hold the view that tax haven status may act as a catalyst for economic development. Obviously, the opinions vary according to whether a person is a tax collector in a non-haven country, a taxpayer engaged in international business activities, or a government policymaker in a haven country.

The …

Judicial Techniques In Combating Tax Avoidance, Ralph S. Rice

Michigan Law Review

There is no problem today more fundamental in federal tax law than the rationale (or lack of it) that underlies the conduct of the courts in striking down tax avoidance devices and refusing to recognize business arrangements which meet statutory requirements for tax saving but exude an odor piscatorial.

Taxation-Federal Estate Tax-Transfers Of Life Insurance In Contemplation Of Death, Ralph E. Hunt S. Ed.

Michigan Law Review

Insurance policies on the life of a decedent are ordinarily included in his gross estate according to the provisions of section 811 (g) of the Internal Revenue Code. Where the policy is payable to a beneficiary other than the executor, it is taxable under section 811(g)(2): (1) if the decedent paid premiums on the policy, in proportion to the amount of premiums paid by him in relation to the total premiums paid, or (2) if the decedent possessed at his death any of the incidents of ownership. However, these provisions are not exclusive; even though section 811 (g) is inapplicable, …

Constitutional Law - Criminal Law And Procedure - Presence Of Accused During Arguments Of Law, Arthur B. Lathrop

Michigan Law Review

The defendant was indicted for a felony on charges of wilfully attempting to "evade or defeat'' federal income taxes based on his failure to report money allegedly received by him from "backers" of numbers games in exchange for political protection. On cross-examination he was questioned about certain payments made in the year following the ones on which the indictment was based. His attorney objected on the ground that the question was going to be the subject of another indictment against the defendant, and asked that the jury be dismissed while an argument was had upon the point of law raised. …

Criminal Law And Procedure - Statutes-Constitutionality Of Criminal Penalties For Unreasonable Deductions Under Federal Income Tax Statute, William H. Shipley

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was indicted for attempting to evade the federal tax on the income of a certain corporation for the years 1933 to 1936. In providing for deductions from gross income, the statute permits a reasonable allowance for salaries or other compensation for personal services. The government charged that the defendant was a party to a fraudulent scheme whereby, under the guise of paying commissions for services, which commissions were · deducted from gross income, the corporation distributed profits to its stockholders. The trial court submitted to the jury the issue whether the deduction represented a reasonable allowance for the services …

Taxation - Federal Estate Taxation Of Life Insurance Effect Of Treasury Decision 5032 Amending Articles 25 And 27 Of The Estate Tax Regulations, Lloyd M. Forster

Michigan Law Review

Stated briefly, the effect of T. D. 5032 has thus been to revert to the original test of payment of premiums for determining when insurance has been "taken out" by the decedent, and to abandon ownership of the policy as a basis for including the proceeds in decedent's estate, thereby departing from the fundamental theory of estate taxation. Thus the regulations, in closing one door to tax avoidance, apparently open another. While this avenue of escape may be narrowed by judicial interpretation, a change in the regulations probably will be required to seal it completely.

Taxation - Income Tax - A Fixed Investment Trust As A Taxable Association, Harry M. Nayer

Michigan Law Review

Bonds of a prescribed kind were deposited in an investment trust with defendant, who issued certificates representing equal undivided interests in the trust corpus. Additional interests were created by the deposit of eligible bonds and sufficient cash to make up the current value of an interest, and all such bonds and cash were commingled. The depositor was not confined in making up the new units to the same kinds of bonds that were used in the original units, but could vary them in his discretion. The depositor could order the elimination of unsound bonds by sale, and the proceeds of …

The Impact Of The Law Of Powers Upon Our Internal Revenue Laws, Montgomery B. Angell

Michigan Law Review

An interesting difference in view has arisen recently in the halls of the Harvard Law School on the use of powers of appointment under the federal estate tax act. One view is that the chief efficacy today of the power of appointment lies in its capacity for use in tax evasion, which should be corrected. The other view is that there is a salutary tendency toward using sensible and flexible powers of appointment, which should be encouraged in meeting changing and difficult family situations, but which would be checked were the former view accepted. Thus we find here the age-old …

Taxation - Federal Income Tax - Intangible Satisfaction From Gift As Income To The Donor, Walter B. Connolly

Michigan Law Review

Respondent, the owner of negotiable bonds, detached from them negotiable interest coupons shortly before their due date and delivered them as a gift to his son, who in the same year collected them at maturity. The commissioner of internal revenue ruled that the interest payments were taxable to the respondent donor. The circuit court of appeals reversed the order of the board of tax appeals sustaining the tax. Held, the commissioner was correct in including such interest payments in the taxable income of the donor. Helvering v. Horst, (U.S. 1940) 61 S. Ct. 144.

Criminal Law And Procedure - Statute Of Limitations - Income Tax Prosecution, Michigan Law Review

Michigan Law Review

Defendant was indicted for wilfully attempting to evade and defeat payment of part of his income tax for the taxable year 1930 by filing a false return in violation of the Revenue Act of 1928. A motion to quash was entered because the indictment had not been found and returned within six years of the alleged commission of the offense. The indictment had been actually found and filed six years and one hundred sixty-six days from the day upon which the return was filed. Defendant was absent from the district on various business and pleasure trips for more than the …